Archangel
by Darkest-Stary-Night
Summary: Would the series have been different if there was a sixth pilot? Introducing Ariel, the pilot of the Gundam Archangel and lifelong friend and girlfriend of Duo, pretending to be a boy to protect herself from those around her. Will she find things out about her past as the war progresses or is she stuck with not knowing why she was abandoned? Rating changed due to adult themes.
1. Prologue

**I do not own Gundam Wing or its characters.**

**Prologue**

With high expectations human beings leave Earth to begin a new life in space colonies. However, the United Earth's Sphere Alliance gains great military powers and soon seizes control of one colony after the other in the name of justice and peace. The year is After Colony 195. Operation Meteor. In a move to counter the alliance's tyranny, rebel citizens of certain colonies scheme to bring new arsenals to the Earth disguising them as shooting stars. However, the Alliance headquarters catches onto this operation.


	2. 01-The shooting star she saw

**I do not own Gundam Wing or its characters.**

**01 – The Shooting Star She Saw**

Duo and I didn't have any troubles as we were landing on the Earth with our Gundams. We had very similar looking Gundams, both depicting something to do with death and justice. His had a thermal energy scythe, something like death would wield, thus the name of his Gundam being Deathscythe, and mine had a thermal energy sword like the images you would see in a church of an avenging angel, making me name it Archangel.

I grew up on colony V-08744 in the L2 colony cluster. I was dumped there by my father, who I now don't have any memory of. I was wandering around trying to find him when Duo and Solo found me. They took me under their wing, despite being the same age as Duo, and they helped me hide the fact that I was a girl. Being a girl on the streets of that particular colony was not a good thing. When Solo dies from the plague that went through the colony, we were taken in by the church run by Father Maxwell and Sister Helen. When Duo and I were not taken in by foster parents, Father Maxwell and Sister Helen adopted us, making Duo a Maxwell. Me on the other hand? I kept the only thing that I could remember about my past; Raberba. I had no idea what it meant but I was determined to keep it.

Let's just say that some things happened that lead to the two of us becoming Gundam pilots that I shall not go into as they are a part of a horrible time in our past that I do not like to look back on.

We received our first mission a day after arriving on the Earth.

We snuck into the mobile suit factory we were to infiltrate. The good thing abouot our Gundams is that they were equipped with cloaking technology and were able to enter the base undetected.

Duo sent up a light bomb that would take the soldier's focus off of us before it blew up.

After it blew up, I sliced my sword through a truck with a mobile suit on it.

I faintly heard someone in the factory ask if they were being attacked before the two of us started slicing through mobile suits, standing and on trucks alike.

"This is Duo and Ari here," Duo said. "We've destroyed the main monitor."

"Now we just have to slice our way out of this battle," I said.

It didn't take long for us to get out of there, slicing and blowing things up on our way.

"Is it me, or was that mission too easy to complete?" I asked that night when we were laying on the bed in our hideout.

"Not really," Duo replied. "Don't forget it was only a factory."

"I know that. But I was thinking that it would have been slightly harder than that, even though it was our first mission. But I also thought that there might have been more soldiers protecting the suits. I mean they were building suits there for crying out loud."

"I see your point." He paused, put his arm around me and pulled me close. I lay my head on his chest and closed my eyes. "We'll just have to see what the next mission will bring us."

I hummed. "Good night, Duo."

"Good night, Ariel."


	3. 02 - The Gundam Deathscythe

**I do not own Gundam Wing**

**02 - The Gundam Deathscythe**

The next day we heard that the Alliance naval fleet was trying to salvage something from the bottom of the ocean, so we decided to make our way over to that area.

We didn't arrive till the next day and, before we submerged our Gundams, we saw that there were three naval ships trying to deploy sea mobile suits.

"How many suits do you think they already have down here?" I asked when we were in the water and making our way to below the ships.

"I don't think the would be too many," he replied. "It looks like they were having trouble with deploying them, like they weren't equipped for it."

We started slicing through any mobile suit we cMe in contact with. After a while missiles started to flow through the water and explode near us.

"I think we should get rid of the ships so they don't relay anything back to the Alliance'" I suggested.

"Agreed," he said before propelling himself towards the ships.

I followed closely behind and managed to slice the first one and make it explode before he could.

"That was mine," he said playfully.

"You can have the next one," I laughed.

And so he sliced the next one before the both of us burst through the ocean's surface and landed on the last ship.

"You can have the honours for this one," Duo said.

"Why thank you kind sir," I said before slicing through the command tower from bottom to top. Soon after the tower blew up, a helicopter tried to escape. "You get them so it's kind of fair."

"Fair? How?" He asked after blowing up the helicopter.

"You have blown two things up, above water that is, and I have blown two things up."

"Fair point. Well they'll all die. Anyone who sees us has got a date with his maker."

We went back into the water to look for whatever it was that the Alliance was looking for. We got to an area where four suits were surrounding something on the ocean floor.

Duo let out a light bomb and we started to slice through the suits, leaving one. For the moment.

Before either of us could get to slicing us him, he grabbed our Gundam's heads and started firing torpedoes at us.

I couldn't keep a hold of my thermal sword and had to let go of it. After I let go of the sword, the suit let go of me and I started to sink to the bottom of the ocean. I looked to my right and saw that he had also let go of Duo. As I watched he lifted his left arm and released his Buster Shield and destroyed the last suit.

"The new armour of OZ's is pretty tough don't you think?" I asked.

"Yeah," he agreed.

I finally tuned into my surroundings and heard a sound. I looked towards it and saw a self-destructing suit.

"So that's what they were searching for," Duo said. "It's on self-detonate mode."

As he was talking I was analysing the suit. "Hey," I said. "This suit is identical to ours." I looked a bit further. "Even the location of the self-detonation device is the same."

Duo changed his scythe into a poket and pushed it into the back of the Gundam where the self-detonation device was. The Gundam stopped self-destructing.

"Not need to destroy a good Gundam," he said.

"We can use it for our back up supply."

He agreed. We both picked up the Gundam and shot off towards the surface.

When we reached the surface, and got to the port where the Gundams would surface, we saw a boy aiming a gun at a girl.

"Wow," I said watching the two of them. "And I thought it was bad for girls on the colony."

Duo hummed.

"You're in over your head," I heard the boy say. "Say goodbye Relena."

Before the boy could shoot, Duo has his gun out and had shot at the other boy.

The girl, Relena drobbed to the floor and covered her head. At least she has a little bit of self-preservation in her. The other boy on the other hand dropped the gun he was holding and flew through the air a little bit. How that happened when he was shot in the arm I will never know.

"Heero," I faintly hear Relena say.

Heero groaned and looked at the two of us. "Who are you?"

"It's pretty obvious to anyone that you're the bad guy here," Duo said. "Are you alright lady?" Relena got up and went to Heero's side. "Ha?"

"Heero," she said. "Are you okay?"

Heero ignored her adn dived to get his gun.

Duo shot him again, this time in the leg. "Don't overdo it," he said. "Remember you're injured."

Heero tried to get up but stumbled back to his knees.

Relena got in Duo's way of Heero with her arms spread wide. "Stop it," she demanded. "What do you want to shoot him for?"

"Hey wait a minute," I said.

Relena went to Heero and started wrapping his wounds with strips of her dress.

"Great," Duo said watching them. "How come I ended up as the bad guy here?"

"Because you shot him," I said. "I have a feeling she has the beginnings of a little crush on the one trying to kill her."

I was shaking my head watching what Relena was doing when Duo's watch beeped.

He looked at it. "It's already reached the surface," he said. "We must have miscalculated the tide."

I looked out to the sea and saw that the three Gundams were breaching the surface.

"What in the world is that?" I heard Relena ask.

I looked back at her and saw that she was looking at the Gundams. I turned on the light that I had causing her to cover her eyes. "Don't look lady," i said. Yes I was _still_ pretending to be a boy. "Now I'm sure you've got you reasons for being here but you better just walk away. Save yourself a lot of grief."

Heero jumped up and ran towards the missiles suspended in the air.

I turned off the light and Duo and I both looked at him. "You haven't had enough yet?" Duo asked rhetorically as Heero jumped onto the missiles. Each shot Duo made missed Heero and hit the missiles instead.

"It's my mobile suit," I swore I heard Heero say before launching the missiles at the Gundams.

"What are you doing you fool?" Duo asked as if he was going to get an answer from the boy falling through the air.

Heero hit the water and started floating face-first, obviously unconscious. The missiles hit the Gundams and they started to sink back to the bottom of the ocean.

"No!" I yelled.

"Damn it," Duo said while I was staring at the space where the Gundams used to be. "He knows Gundanium's impact tolerance." We looked at Heero in the water. "Which means he's the mobile suits pilot."

_So I did hear him correctly_, I thought.


	4. 03 - Six Gundams Confirmed

Chapter 3 - Six Gundams Confirmed

Two days later Duo and I were at the bottom of the Alliance hospital in which they had placed Heero. Duo was on the phone with the person who was giving us shelter. "Yeah that'll do," he said. "Also both the pull carts are broken, so I'd like you to have our lunch ready at the back of the wheat field if you would. Thanks. We'll help you thresh the wheat later." He hung up and stepped put of the phone booth.

"Shall we go visit that patient?" I asked.

Duo nodded.

It took a while to find the room they were observing Heero from but when we did, we knocked the people in the room out and I connected with the screen that was in Heero's room. When his face appeared on the screen, Duo put one finger to his lips before starting to talk. "I see you've got no choice but to lie there," he said. "I'm sure a talented guy with your skills would be able to read my lips. Well can ya?" Heero turned his face away from the screen and closed his eyes. "Your acting is just amazing. You've regained consciousness without increasing your pulse or your brainwaves. I've got a few questions I'd like to ask you. If you're feeling up to it I thought I'd help you break out of here."

I had looked at the plans for the building before we entered, so it was easy to find the wall behind which Heero was lying. Duo placed the explosives on the wall and shielded me from the blast. As the dust settled, he let me go. Looking into the room, I saw that Heero was looking at us.

Time to liven things up buddy," Duo said.

We went to the side of where Heero was lying and knelt. "Damn," I said. " how do you get these things off?"

"Hand me a knife," I head Heero say from above us. "I'll cut them down the middle."

Both Duo and I looked up and saw a bloody hand reaching towards us. I almost gagged. Yes I was a Gundam pilot and had killed people but I never saw the people. And the last time I did see dead bodies I threw up violently before passing out, then again they had been people I had grown to know.

Duo made a slight noise of disgust. "What did you do to your hand?" He asked. "Damn, you got some guts." He gave Heero his knife, who us edit to cut the restraints.

We got out of the room and ran towards an exit of some sort. "This way," I yelled running towards a window, which Duo promptly threw a bomb at. The three of us fell to the ground while running to avoid being hurt by the explosion. After the window was blown away, we ran and jumped out of it.

"Geronimo," Duo and I yelled in synch. The both of us flipped in the air,he put his arm around my waist and used the thermal energy copter to slow down our decent.

"Hey are you crazy?" I yelled to Heero as he was still falling head first for the ground and he still hadn't released his parachute. "Hurry up and release your parachute."

He either didn't hear what I was saying or he chose to ignore me.

"Move it," Duo yelled. "Are you trying to kill yourself or what?" Heero still kept falling.

I turned my head into Duo's chest. "Damn, I'm gonna have to add this to my nightmare list."

"Agreed."

I heard an indistinct yell from above.

"It's way to late now," Duo yelled.

I looked down to see Heero let go of his parachute and roll down the cliff and beach.

"Oh God," I said before turning into Duo again.

Duo and I landed on the beach near Heero ad Duo let go of the copter. He pulled his hat off and put it on my head. "Now I understand that you wanted to take you own life," Duo stressed out. "But maybe, just maybe, you should think of another way of committing suicide buddy."

We walked to Heero and grabbed an arm each, putting them around our shoulders.

"We're not asking you to trust me or anything," I said. "But right now, we're the only friends you've got."

Later that night the three of us were back at the marina where our Gundams were at the bottom of the ocean. Deathscythe and Archangel were already lying on the deck and Duo was pulling the third one out of the water.

"There," Duo said from the cranes control seat. "There, I've pulled yours up too." He looked to Heero. "You could at least show a little gratitude. Ha?" I looked the way he was looking and saw Heero lying on the ground, leg up against the railing. "What's he doing?"

Heero popped his leg back into place. Duo cringed and groaned. I pushed my head into his back, as I was standing behind him making sure he didn't do something wrong.

"I can't take much more of this," Duo groaned. "He just goes and puts a broken bone back into place."

"Please don't," I begged Duo. "That's just totally grossing me out thinking about it."

I looked up from Duo's back and saw that Heero was staring at his Gundam in the water.


	5. 04 - The Victoria Nightmare

Dear Cyn Finnegan: I don't know much about FT myself. I have been mentally thinking about Quatre having a twin for a while now.

For those who do know a bit about FT, I hope I don't make Ariel too much like Quatrine. If I do I'm sorry.

Tokyo10: There isn't really a reason why I thought of the name Ariel. The idea has just been plaguing my mind for a little while now.

**Chapter 4 - The Victoria Nightmare**

The next day we were in the hanger of a mechanics warehouse having our Gundams repaired. We had finally found Howard, the one that Professor G told us about. Heero was the only stubborn one who didn't want anyone touching his suit, despite the offer Duo and I made to fix his suit with parts from ours.

I was leaning against Archangel watching him as he typed away at a laptop that was connected to his cockpit. "Insulation section 2600," he said. "Repairs are possible."

I raised my eyebrows. _And how does he plan to fix it_? I asked myself.

"Hey you," I heard Duo yell. I looked to my left and saw him walk past the head of my suit. "I'm calling you." He paused before coming and standing next to me. "You won't even acknowledge our help. He we are, mister nice-guys, offering to fix your suit with ours. But you just brush us right off."

"I don't want anyone touching my mobile suit," Heero said. "That's all pal."

Duo and I walked towards Heero's Gundam. "Well that's a joke," I said. "You haven't even got the parts." Duo jumped onto the suit and sat down before helping me up and putting an arm around me. _I guess he doesn't mind people thinking he's gay. Especially after ... No don't think about that Ariel_. "The best engineers in the world couldn't repair machines without the parts."

Duo then started swinging his leg from side to side. "Mechanics need parts for repairs," he said. "Not like you with your leg." I placed my hand on his leg stopping him from swinging it. "You see what I'm saying?" He groaned and slumped forward.

I put a hand on his back. "Why did we even bother to rescue this guy in the first place?" I stage whispered. "He's antisocial, thinks he's Evil Knieval and hardly speaks."

Duo threw his arms in the air, shook his head and groaned in annoyance. He put his elbow on his knee before leaning his head in his hand. "You've got such a gloomy personality," he said ignoring my question. "Why don't you give up and stop pretending to be human."

"Hey," Heero suddenly yelled.

"What is it?" I asked.

"You're to late if you think you're gonna ask for our help," Duo finished for me.

"Could you keep it down over there?" Heero asked.

Duo put his head down. "Yeah sure," he said. "Forgive us for interrupting."

Before anyone could say anything, noises came from inside the cockpit of Heero's suit.

Heero jumped in and sat in the seat while Duo and I looked in through the opening. "What is it?" I asked.

"I'm on call," Heero answered. "An enemy carrier is transporting Gundanium's Alloy. I'll see to it first thing in the morning."

"Hey," Duo said in what sounded like a protest. "You can't go anywhere with your suit I this shape. We're talking miracles here."

"It'd take a miracle for you. But I can handle it."

Duo stepped away from the cockpit and to the edge of the Gundam. "We'll excuse me for being a mere mortal," he said before whispering. "If you screw up, you'll be low to smithereens. Your missions have no room for failure, just like mine. Who are you anyway?" With that said he jumped off of the suit.

I continued to look into the cockpit until Heero looked up at me. "What?" He asked annoyed.

"You can also use parts from my suit to repair yours," I offered.

"I don't know why you're being so nice to me." He stood up, got out of the cockpit and went back to tapping at the laptop. "And just so you know, I don't swing that way."

I stoop up. "Duo says that's what my downfall will be. I'm just too nice to everyone." I walked to the edge of the Gundam. "And who said I did?" I jumped to the ground leaving a very confused Heero behind. _He'll work it out eventually_, I thought. _He's smart enough to_.

**LATER THAT NIGHT**

I wok up to the sounds of construction in the work area. Duo groaned from beside me. "What the heck is that noise?"

"I think he's still working on his suit," I replied before getting up.

Duo got in front of me and looked out the door. I glared at his back and pushed my head under his arm. Sure enough, Heero was sitting up and repairing his Gundam.

Duo yawned and, like clockwork, I followed.

"Man," Duo said. "What the heck's he thinking?" He tightened his arm around me and started to pull me back to bed. "We're sacking it."

**THE NEXT MORNING**

When I woke up and entered the area where the Gundams were I noticed that there was a strong wind coming in through the open hanger door. I ran to stand by Duo's side and covered my face from the wind. "What's going on?" I asked.

Before anyone could answer me, Heero sped off in his Gundam in flight mode.

"Unreal," Duo said in disbelief. "I don't believe it. That guy's incredible. He fixed his machine in one night."

_All because he took up my offer and used parts from my suit_, I thought.

"Oh no," one of the mechanics said from inside. We all looked in. "We've been had. He took his parts his parts from this suit."

Duo ran inside while I just dawdled. _We haven't been had_, I thought. _I let him_-

"What?" Duo asked. "I was just complimenting him." He clenched his fists and threw his head back. "Traitor." He yelled, despite Heero not being able to hear him.

He looked at me as if to ask me something. He may have for all I know. I was just standing there in shock. There Deathscythe was pulled apart, head detached from the body and everything, lying next to Arachangel who he had not even touched.

_What the hell_? Was all I could ask myself.


	6. 05 - Relena's Secret

**Chapter 5 - Relena's Secret**

Cyn Finnegan: I hope this chapter does not change your view on Ariel to much. If it does sorry but it should hopefully give you a little more insight about her character as a whole.

**AN - Warning: chapter contains adult themes.**

It had been a couple of days since Heero had used Deathscythe instead of Archangel to fix his Gundam. And since that day Duo had not spoken a word to me, no matter how hard I tried to talk to him.

The mechanics were finishing off the repairs to Deathscythe so I decided to try and talk to Duo again. I approached his as he sat at the edge of the salvage ship. "Duo?" I asked timidly. He ignored me. "Please talk to me." I sat down next to him.

Before I could utter another word, Howard came out of the hanger and stood behind us. "The mobile suit has been repaired," he informed Duo, who turned to look at him completely ignoring my presence beside him.

"Thanks pal," Duo said. "I owe you one." He stood up and looked at Deathscythe with Howard.

"No problem, as long as I get paid. You and your friend are excellent clients young man."

I looked down at the ocean beneath my feet. Ever since the incident with Heero I had felt as though I didn't belong here. I had begun to wonder if I was even needed as a pilot.

"We made it just in time for my next mission," Duo said.

I picked my head up and looked at the horizon. Those words proved me right. '_My_ next mission'. Usually it was '_our_ next mission'. I didn't know if Howard and Duo had entered the hanger or not but I stood up and moved to stand next to the railing before taking a hold of it. I stared into the seemingly bottomless ocean and contemplated how long I could hold my breath for before I had to come up for air.

_I guess it won't bother anyone if I test it out, even if I don't come back up for air_, I thought. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and dangled one leg over the edge. I could faintly hear people in the background calling my name. I didn't know who they were, it sounded like I was already underwater. Opening my eyes, I found that I had fallen into the water without realising it.

I could start to feel my lungs yelling at me to go to the surface to get some air. I didn't listen to them. My eyesight was starting to get blurry. _I'll see you soon Solo, Father Maxwell and Sister Helen_. Closing my eyes I felt someone grab my waist and start pulling me. I imagined that it was Solo finally taking me home. Yet as I finished that thought, my body broke the surface of the water and I was forced to take a breath.

I opened my eyes when I was laid on metal and saw Duo leaning over me soaking. _Why would he save me if he wasn't even talking to me_? I asked myself.

"What are you doing?" He yelled. "Have you already forgotten the promises we made? '_Stick together no matter what_' and '_look after each other_'. Remember?"

I moved my head to the side so I didn't look him in his eyes and let tears flow down my cheeks.

He picked me up, cradled me close to his chest and walked to the shower rooms. I heard muttering around me as we went but I couldn't concentrate on anything. I was still revelling in the fact that Duo had saved me despite ignoring me for a couple of days and acting like I didn't exist.

I didn't notice anything around me until I felt warm water hitting my back. I looked up at Duo, tears still falling down my face. He smiled at me sadly and wiped hem away. I snuggled into him and he just held onto me until I had stopped shaking. He helped me dry myself off, bind my chest and get dressed. Normally I could have done it myself but the shock of what I did was finally sinking in.

After he got dressed himself, he laid me on our bed and held me close. "Why did you do it?" He asked me softly after about half an hour.

I rolled around in his arms and looked into his cobalt blue eyes. "Why did you ignore me for a couple of days?" I asked in return.

"I'm sorry." He pulled me closer and tucked me under his chin. "I thought you had ignored me that day and so I did the same." He sighed. "I was just being childish." He pulled back and looked me in the eyes. "Can you forgive me?"

I leant forward and kissed his cheek. I stayed where I was. "If only you can forgive me. I was being childish and thinking you were abandoning me like my father did when we were five."

I looked down between our bodies and grabbed the part of his shirt where my hand lay. As I watched he grabbed my hand in one of his and gave it a squeeze.

"I would never willingly abandon you," he whispered. I looked into his eyes. "I didn't mean for you to feel like that. I guess I forgot that you're insecure about things like that, what with being with you every day." He pulled me close again. "I'm really sorry."

I smiled and kissed him before tucking myself under his chin.

We did say anything until it was time to go on the mission.

"Are you coming?" He asked when he saw that I wasn't getting into the cockpit of Archangel. I smiled and got into my Gundam.

When we got to the base we had to destroy, we saw that it was already mostly destroyed. The only thing left was the command tower.

"I guess someone else got here first," Duo said.

"Thank you Captain Obvious," I said shooting the tower and blowing it up. "I never noticed."

The two of us landed on the ground. "Well it looks like that other guy has the same mission as us."

"Ha?" I looked forward to see Heero's Gundam."

"It looks like we're all after the same thing," Duo said to Heero. He paused to wait for a response. "Well? Aren't you gonna at least respond."

"I don't think he's in the mood to play," I said giggling.

Heero lifting his beam riffle and aiming at us proved my point. Duo responded by getting ready to fire his buster shield.

"Seems like you two are gonna have to fight it out after all," I said before stepping away from Deathscythe.

Unfortunately my Gundam's foot found a weak spot in the ground and fell.

"Ariel," Duo yelled so afraid for my safety that he forgot to shorten my name.

Heero fired his beam riffle. "Duo," I yelled as he screamed.

I watched in relief as the beam missed Duo. _But what was he aiming at_? I looked behind the two of us and saw a Leo fall to the ground.

"Ha?" I heard Duo say.

I looked forward to see a mobile suit hand in front of my suit as if to help me up. I followed the arm to see that it was Heero offering me a hand. I grabbed it and stood up.

The image of Heero in the cockpit of his Gundam appeared on one of my screens. "You're doing a good job pretending to be a boy," he said.

I smiled and tilted my head to the right. "Told you I didn't swing that way either," I replied. "But I do have one question. Why did you not use my Gundam like I offered?"

"Because he is more annoying than you are." And with that he cut off communication and turned his Gundam towards Duo's. "I've returned the favour." He laughed before flying his Gundam away.

"Damn you," Duo said. "I'll get you back." His face appeared on my screen in the same spot where Heero's just was. "What did he say to you?"

I smirked at him. "That he used your Gundam instead of mine because you're more annoying than I am." At his playful glare I giggled. "And he also now knows that I'm a girl." I returned his glare. "Thanks for that by the way."

"Oops." He cut off communication and the two of us started the journey back to Howard's ship.


	7. 06 - Party Night

Chapter 6 - Part Night

**I know it's short, but hey there isn't much to do in this chapter.**

For the next few days, Duo and I didn't receive any missions. So we both decided to use the time to relax. Like tonight, the two of us were lying on a tarp thrown over the legs of Deathscythe, myself curled next to him and he was holding me as if I was going to disappear if he let me go. He had become quite paranoid when it comes to me after _that_ day.

The mechanics were also lazing around. "Man this is good stuff," one said. "Nothing like a good cup of joe after a long days haul."

"You got that right," a second agreed.

"Hey Duo," Howard yelled. "Ari."

Duo pulled us up so we were sitting. It was more like he was sitting and I was leaning on him.

"I was trying to go to sleep," I groaned.

"What's up Duo?" Howard asked. "What ya doing there?"

"Nothing," Duo replied. "Just thinking how beautiful the moon looks from the Earth."

"You bet it is. It's a real beauty."

"From the colony the moon's just too close."

"It almost looks like a graveyard when you think about it," I said staring up at the moon before closing my eyes again.

"Yeah, a graveyard," Howard repeated.

"I wonder how long we'll be able to see the moon like this," Duo mused before humming. "I doubt if that guy even looks at the moon."

I giggled. Duo lay back down again without warning me. I clutched onto him tighter and gave out a squeak. "That was mean," I said yawning.

"Go to sleep," he whispered, kissing my hair. "He should try enjoying life rather than spending his time trying to outsmart me. While he's still alive that is."

"I know what you're saying," Howard said. "But it's not that simple ." His voice was getting softer, like he was walking away. "It's just human nature."

"What's that guy doing, I wonder."

"Probably blowing something up," I said. "Now shush. Pillows aren't supposed to talk."

He chuckled and held me closer.


	8. 07 - Scenario For Bloodshed

**Chapter 7 - Scenario for Bloodshed**

Almost a month later we got a mission to attack the New Edwards Base as the top OZ officials would be assemble there.

The two of us went to the nearest base to get a carrier and fly it to New Edwards.

"Hey Duo," I said when we got into a hanger. "Isn't that-?"

"That guy's Gundam," he said cutting me off. "Come on." We got onto the carrier that Heero's Gundam was behind and shut our Gundams down in the freight compartment.

After Duo got out of his suit, he jumped to the floor of the carrier and looked up at Heero standing on the platform at the door of the carrier's cockpit while I sat on the chest of my suit watching.

"Hey," he said. "You load yours on too pal. Ari and I will come and take over the cockpit." He ran forwards until Heero trained a gun on him. I saw Heero's lips moving but I to far away to hear what he said. "This time I'm definitely not gonna let the mission fail. How 'bout trusting me a bit."

Heero pulled the gun towards himself. "Do what you want," he said before walking back into the cockpit.

"What do you know," Duo said looking back at me. I raised my eyebrows in question. "Looks like he remembered my name after all."

I rolled my eyes as he ran towards the cockpit by himself. I stayed where I was waiting for Heero to load his Gundam on.

"Why do you even stay with him?" He asked stepping out of his suit. "He seems too childish for someone as nice as you."

I smiled. "I have known his since I was about five years old. He protected me from all sorts of things." He helped me down from my suit. I looked at him in surprise. He didn't seem like the type of person who would do that, even if it was good manners. Especially since I saw him point a gun at a girl with the intent to kill her. "Thanks."

"So you feel like you owe him?"

The two of us started walking to the cockpit of the carrier.

"No. Not at all. We have been best friends since we met and it just progressed from there. Beside set that we made promises to some people that we would always look out for each other no matter what."

"What about being childish?"

"The two of us have had a hard life. Being childish is his way of repressing the bad feelings and memories. I guess you could say it's a mask he wears so he doesn't get pity from others." By this time we were at the top of the stairs and near the cockpit. I stopped him and he turned around to look at me. "Why are you being so nice to me? I mean you were intending to kill that girl before we stopped you and you used Duo's Gundam for spare parts when I said you could use mine."

It took him a little bit before he answered. "I don't know _exactly _why," he said. "All I know is that my feelings are telling me to protect you like a brother would."

"Well unless your name has anything to do with Reberba, I know that we aren't family." I lent forward and kissed his cheek. "But thank you."

We entered the cockpit to find that Duo had taken control of the steering.

As we were leaving the hanger the soldiers started shooting their guns at us. _As if that's going to stop us_, I thought.

"Oh man," Duo said when we were up in the air with him flying. "This is going to be quite the battle isn't it?"

Heero looked past me and at Duo. "This mission's really big," Heero said. "I don't think you get it."

"Yeah he does," I said. Heero looked at me. "This is our chance to finally destroy the OZ organisation."

Heero looked back out the front window. "This time is different," he said. "We're gonna eliminate every OZ leader."

"Yeah," Duo agreed. "Then we can go back to space."

Heero looked back at Duo.

"Remember what I said earlier," I whispered.

He gave a twitch of his lips, which I took as a smile, before looking forwards again.

When we got to the base, we all exited the carrier on the Gundams. Heero's got hit as he flying and he transformed it while sliding on the ground.

A Leo was aiming to fire at Heero. Duo saw this at the same time that I did and shot his buster shield at it blowing it up. Heero angled his Gundam to look at the two of us.

"Wow," Duo said. "This defence line isn't like the others."

"Ten times more of them," Heero said. "That's much more than we estimated."

"Well there's no turning back now," I said before destroying any suit I could.

Heero destroyed the enemy suits with his beam riffle. "We're taking to much time trying to get through," he said before dropping the riffle and taking out his beam saber.

"Let's move in for the kill," Duo said.

We continued to fight the never ending stream of suits. "Crap," Duo swore.

"They just keep coming," I said in disbelief.

Before a suit could attack us, the warning alarm went off. Looking to my right, I saw two more suits standing at the edge of the base. What struck me was the barrage of missiles heading our way. "Those are missiles," Duo noted. "Aimed at us allies."

_No really?_ I thought sarcastically. _I didn't notice_.

The three of us attempted to get out of the way of the missiles. Unfortunately, Heero was thrown to the ground by the force of the explosion and I was in a similar position, just on my knees with Duo kneeling in front of me leaning on the pole of his scythe.

When the smoke cleared up, I could see that the two new suits had started to fight. As they were fighting I took the time to analyse them.

"Are they OZ's newest models?" Heero asked.

"Yeah, but they're attacking the Alliance," Duo observed.

"They are almost identical in model to our suits," I said noticing that they had the same basic shape of the Gundams. "I didn't think that OZ had the plans for something like the Gundams."

The white suit with curved blades destroyed the suits that went at him. When no more attacks came, the two of them turned to the three of us. It was like an old face off where no one moved from where they were.

"Those suits are identical," Duo said.

"I told you that," I said sarcastically.

"I didn't have time to notice while they were fighting."

While we were facing each other, a shuttle with the OZ symbol on it took off. "That's the one," Heero said before transforming into the flight type and flying towards the shuttle and destroying it.

"Thanks for those missiles earlier buddy," Duo said to the red suit. "Now I'll return the favour."

Duo launched himself at the suit. The suit released an army blade from its arm and stopped Duo's attack by blocking the staff. The red suit showered Duo's suit with bullets.

"Cut it out you guys," the pilot of the other suit yelled at the two fighting.

"Just let it go," I yelled at Duo. "Don't let him get to you."

I know that Duo knew that I meant not to get revenge for something that the other guy accidentally did. But apparently he didn't take it that way this time around as he attacked again, only for the other one to stop the beam with the blade.

_That must be some strong metal to not be sliced by Duo's beam scythe, _I thought.

I sighed with relief when fire appeared between the two fighting suits causing them to break apart.

A sixth suit that looked like a Gundam had approached from my right. "Haven't you guys gotten tired of these meaningless battles yet?" He asked.

Heero landed his Gundam met to me. "What do you mean?" He asked in return.

The cockpit of the sixth Gundam opened and a Chinese boy stepped out. "Don't you guys realise? You've all been lured right into OZ's devious little trap."

"We what?" The guy that yelled for Duo and the other pilot to stop asked as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Neither could I for that matter.

"Check out the Alliance's report. You guys just wiped out the Alliance's pacifists."

"Impossible," I faintly hear Heero say.

I looked to the screen on my right and brought up the Alliance's report as was suggested.

"This is the colonies declaration of war against us," said the guy in the report. I thought he was one of the Alliance leaders in charge of military. "We were just discussing plans for peace talks with the colonies today. Marshal Noventa was at the centre of these plans and he's been assassinated. He was killed by the colonies invading mobile suits. I repeat this was a brutal invasion by the colonies." The video of Heero's Gundam destroying the shuttle appeared. "We will not yield to the colonies. We must fight them to the bitter end." And that was the end of the report._This will either get the people of the colonies on our side or against us, _I thought.

"This was all completely planned out by OZ," the Chinese pilot said. "We became their puppets. Controlled by Treize Khushrenada."

"No," twin-blade pilot - that's what I shall call him from now on - said, sounding defeated. "How awful."

"Damn him," Duo cursed.

The Chinese pilot turned to look back into the cockpit of his Gundam. "But I'm gonna fight you OZ," he said. "Even if I've got to id it on my own."

"What have I-" Heero started before pausing. "What have I done?"

I connected my suit with Heero's and saw his down turned face. "You didn't do it on purpose," I told him. He looked up at me. "We didn't know that it was actually the Alliance assembling."

He looked down again before cutting off the connection. I sighed unable to do anything to cheer him up a little bit.


	9. 08 - The Treize Assassination

**Chapter 8 - The Treize Assassination**

We stood there until nightfall. When the sun went down, the Red pilot and the Chinese pilot went into the hanger of the base to procure two carriers to go after Treize Khushrenada, leaving the rest of us to figure out what to do next.

"Treize Khushrenada was using us like a bunch of puppets," I said hoping that Heero would hear it and stop mentally berating himself for something that he didn't have any control over.

"We totally screwed this entire mission," twin-blade pilot said.

Duo let out a growl, like he always did when he was frustrated about something. "Let's go after Treize," he suggested. "We can still catch up with him."

"That's not wise."

"Stay out of my way. You want me to shoot ya?"

"Our missions have always focused on attacking them when they least expect it. But the enemy clearly has the advantage right now."

"He's got a point," I said.

Duo let steam come out of the Vulcan guns on his Gundam to show his frustration. "I see what you're saying kid," he said before angling his suit to look at mine. "And ganging up on me," he said incredulously, "really?"

"He was right."

Before he could growl at me our alarms went off and Leo suits started firing at us. "So we didn't get 'me all," Duo said.

"Either way, let's get out of here," twin-blade pilot said.

"Right," I agreed.

The three of us moved to start the journeys from the base. I assumed that Heero would follow us.

"Hey kid, look out," Duo yelled suddenly. "You'll get shot."

Twin-blade and I looked back at where we were standing to see Heero still there.

"Don't just stand there," I yelled.

The three of us started to fight the opposing mobile suits to protect Heero.

"So how long do you expect us to look after you?" Duo asked after a little while.

"Your friend's just gone through a little too much it seems," twin-blade said.

A stray shot managed to get past us and hit Heero's Gundam. As he wasn't fighting back, he fell to the ground.

Suddenly a lady's voice came over the speakers of the base. "Heero," the voice said. "I know you can hear me listen to me Heero."

"Heero?" Duo asked. "So his name's Heero."

I mentally sighed with relief. At least I hadn't been calling him the wrong name, even if it was in my head.

"Detonation of the base's large missiles were activated a few minutes ago. OZ is planning to blow the base apart in order to kill you Gundam pilots."

"I've confirmed that," twin-blade said. "Apparently there are forty-seven large missiles situated at the New Edwards Base. And if they were to explode at once, it would instantly wipe out a radius of three hundred kilometres."

"I'm not sticking around," Duo said with a tremble in his voice. "Let's blow this lace right now."

"I'll be right behind you," I agreed.

"There's ten minutes till it blows up," twin-blade argued. "We can't possibly get away safely now."

"You would be able to cover that distance in time," the lady continued. "But please grant me my one last wish. Deactivate the missiles, Heero."

Heero stood his Gundam up, turned into his flight mode and flew off.

"Hey, Heero you coward," Duo yelled. "How could you leave us?"

"You're wrong," twin-blade said. "He isn't trying to run away."

"Missile bass location confirmed," Heero said in his usual monotone. "Proceeding to enter the base."

"What's that guy trying to prove?" I asked. _Does he really think he's super human_? I asked myself?

"Roger that Heero," twin-blade said. _I really need to find out his name_, I though. _I'm getting slightly tired of calling him twin-blade_. "I'm gonna stake my life on you."

A little bit later, Duo and I procured a couple of carriers, loaded our Gundams onto one of them before sitting in the cockpit of it.

Twin-blade meanwhile was still fighting the remaining Leos.

"Alright," I said. "They're in good shape. We've secured two carriers."

"The runway will be cleared in a minute," twin-blade said.

"Let's hope we're not wasting our time."

"Oh and could you get your hands on one more carrier and get it ready for departure?"

"Another one?" Duo asked.

"Heero's gonna need one too. His mobile suit is probably low on fuel."

Duo placed his hands behind his head and leaned back into the seat. "You are totally confident that he's gonna succeed aren't ya?" He asked.

"Yes," twin-blade said with conviction.

"It's all up to you now Heero," I said. "Go for it."

"He's got a ten percent chance of success. But that guy could do it for sure."

Once we were sure that Heero had stopped the explosion of the missiles Duo and twin-blade started the carriers and took off into the sky. Once in the air, the of us waved to twin-blade, who waved back before taking off in another direction to us.

"Gotta say you're quite the guy Heero," Duo said. "Way to go."

"What do you suppose we do while waiting for the next mission?" I asked.

"I don't know Ariel," he answered. "Let's go back to Howard's and think it through."

"Sure." I closed my eyes and started to drift off to sleep. "Just wake me when we get there."


End file.
